teacupsandcyanide

[teacupsandcyanide]

The keys of marinus serial: We’re not going to waste budget on actually making this insanely cool dream laboratory the Doctor has been brainwashed to think he can see so you’re not even gonna see it from his and Ian’s POV, BUT. We will give you hilarious footage of them marvelling at an empty room with nothing but a mouldy cup in it

[teacupsandcyanide]

The keys of marinus serial: We’re not going to waste budget on actually making this insanely cool dream laboratory the Doctor has been brainwashed to think he can see so you’re not even gonna see it from his and Ian’s POV, BUT. We will give you hilarious footage of them marvelling at an empty room with nothing but a mouldy cup in it

[teacupsandcyanide]

you’d be surprised by how much of classic who is white men in slutty outfits

[teacupsandcyanide]

I now believe in the existence of exactly one angel

[teacupsandcyanide]

Fic: Interlude in a Plastic Cell

Rating: General

Words: 5,158

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairings: Yasmin Khan/Thirteenth Doctor, Clara Oswald/Thirteenth Doctor, Clara Oswald/Twelfth Doctor

Summary: Of all the space stations in all the galaxies, the Doctor had to walk into the one Clara Oswald was busy investigating.

Notes: This fic is a prequel to a planned fic dealing with some of the lies of omission Thirteen has told Yaz, and how Yaz will be dealing with that! I thought, who better to call out Thirteen's lies than the queen of lying herself, Clara Oswald? Anyway, hope you enjoy!

[teacupsandcyanide]

a 'screw the audience' joke - or even entire plotline - can be amazing. playing with people's expectations, when done intelligently, can lead to brilliant moments in storytelling. but when done poorly, playing with people's expectations can fall very flat.

i'd like to use two examples of this concept, one which succeeded, and one which (repeatedly) did not. spoilers for doctor who 'dot and bubble,' and basically all of what we do in the shadows, ahead.

an example of a successful play against the audience's expectations is the doctor who episode 'dot and bubble.' this episode is a classic set-up for doctor who: we meet an average, everyday young woman, waking up and going about her daily routine. the setting is futuristic, but we can recognise some upgraded versions of current tech: her dot is her smartphone and her bubble is her feed/timeline. as the episode goes on, danger threatens, and our heroine lindy is forced to save herself, with help from the doctor and companion, who send messages to help her through her bubble. she even meets a cute boy over the course of her adventures, one ricky september, an influencer/musician type.

now, so far, the storyline matches up quite well with several established doctor who tropes and episodes. probably the best example of this type of set-up is the episode 'blink,' in which a modern woman is going about her business, danger threatens, technology is used to send messages from the doctor and companion to her, and she saves the day with a sweet male love interest or two. this is one of the most popular doctor who episodes of all time, and the audience is very much primed to enjoy and appreciate this character archetype and storyline.

except, in 'dot and bubble,' at a critical moment, lindy chooses the dark side. she sacrifices ricky september to save herself. and after that shock to the audience, she immediately reveals herself as a white supremacist to the black man that saved her - our beloved doctor! - and refuses any further help from him, even though it is very clear to the audience that she and the other members of her society will die without his help.

this is a brilliant example of defying audience expectations intelligently!

firstly, the signs of what's really going on are there from the beginning of the episode for those with keen eyes. lindy's entire society is made up of white people. there are no people of colour at all. when the doctor tells lindy to do things to save herself, she whines, complains, and says he's condescending to her. when ruby, the white companion to the doctor, tells her to do things ... she does them pretty quickly. these details lead to excellent rewatch value - picking up all the clues the second time around is fun!

secondly, the set-up of the society being dependent on their technology (the 'dot and bubble') is another well-worn sci-fi trope. going in, one might have expected the moral to be 'technology dependence = bad.' and it was. but it was MORE than just that: it was about how technology dependence doesn't just foster an inability to do regular things, it fosters an inability to see other points of view or see other people as people. although lindy dropped her literal bubble, she was unable to leave her metaphorical one in the end of the episode. the message was more complex and multi-layered than it first appeared, giving the audience more to discuss and consider after watching the episode.

so, surprising your audience by defying their expectations can work extremely well. but it must be done with a consideration towards the overall message and themes of your story, and the feeling you want to leave your audience with. you want them to walk away feeling wowed, asking themselves how they could have missed the twist, or laughing at their own expectations, feeling amused by the unexpected punchline.

the team behind what we do in the shadows, in their attempt to shove as many 'screw the audience' jokes into their show as possible, have not achieved this.

there are quite a few problems with the writing behind wwdits over the last three or so seasons, but i'll restrict myself to the concept i've introduced here: playing with audience expectations.

being a comedy, wwdits actually has quite a few successful screw the audience jokes. for example, the baron being a dreaded character supposedly capable of incredible feats, only to die quickly in season one - that was hilarious! and it nicely foreshadowed the twist that guillermo would become a vampire slayer with van helsing blood, given that guillermo was the one who accidentally killed him.

however, in recent seasons, the show has taken a turn towards the ... for lack of a better word, spiteful? perhaps simply, the poorly considered. most of the interesting plotlines introduced by the show are not resolved in a satisfactory manner. it could be argued that as a comedy that's not the point of the show, but then i would question why the show introduces these plotlines at all, since it will inevitably become tiring as an audience member to invest in storylines that end with a dismissive joke over and over again. some examples of this would be:

guillermo being a slayer. this was a very interesting storyline between seasons one and three, and a fantastic twist for a character who had been set up as a pathetic, slightly helpless human. after this point, the concept was largely dropped, even though it easily should have been relevant - for example, it would have made sense as to why guillermo's eventual turning went wrong. the explicitly listed reason - that guillermo is not a killer - is baffling, and makes no sense with what we've seen of guillermo, who lures in victims for the vampires, dismembers human bodies and murders vampires routinely.

lazlo sending nadja to the uk without him in order to raise colin. the show, to be fair, did stick with lazlo raising colin, but then dropped it entirely once colin reverted to his previous self. it's brought up once as a joke, when colin says he wishes he'd had a loving father, and lazlo tries to remind him that he raised him. this was a mediocre joke at best, and added nothing to the overall experience of the show. as for nadja, she forgives lazlo immediately and nothing further happens between them, despite the fact that they've been shown to fight, and it would have been a good opportunity to give nadja some development outside of lazlo's orbit.

nandor's wives. this one was painful. we certainly might have expected many of them to disappear after an episode or two, but to have the remaining one, marwa, literally stripped of her identity and turned into a white man ... it was extremely uncomfortable to watch, and went well beyond the point of 'screw the audience.' the baron, the sire, and the guide all underwent interesting development to some extent, but marwa was never seen again. to do this to the only woman of colour in the recurring cast was distasteful at best.

not to mention, this plotline completely undid a lot of the development of nandor and guillermo's relationship, which has never recovered. nandor and guillermo's relationship or lack thereof in general felt oddly pointed at times. though all of the characters are queer, this relationship was never at any point allowed to develop into romance, despite support from fans, and acknowledgement by the writers. even the most minor of developments between the two were quickly rolled back, often within the same episode. a couple of seasons of that was funny, but by the time of nandor's wives, it was stale and frankly just felt sad to watch. one is not supposed to come away from a comedy feeling sad.

at a certain point, the show stopped playing with audience expectations, and started playing with their hopes. it felt less like we were getting clever twists and unexpected punchlines, and more like we were getting ... well, screwed. storylines cut off at the heels. handwave-y, incoherent jokes were expected to fill the spaces where character and relationship development once lived. (the overcrowding of the cast, plotlines, and jokes in the latter seasons is an entirely separate post.)

there is a vast canyon between choosing to challenge audience expectations in order to further the themes and entertainment value of your story, and choosing to go against every audience expectation because ... well, just because, i suppose. doctor who did the former, and wwdits, sadly, did the latter.

[teacupsandcyanide]

If I had video editing software I’d make endless videos mashing together all of new Who’s most poignant pacificism speeches with footage of the early Doctors committing acts of violence because they were lightly inconvenienced. I want to take the “I never would” anti-gun Tenth Doctor scene and end it with Ian having to physically stop the First Doctor from bashing a caveman to death in cold blood with a large rock

[teacupsandcyanide]

he says "MUSTAAAAAAAARD" like he's absolutely smashed and someone's asked what he wants on burger

he says "MUSTAAAAAAAARD" like he's yelling his theory at the tail end of a really intense game of cluedo

he says "MUSTAAAAAAAARD" like someone's just asked him what his favourite statement colour of the 1970s was

he says "MUSTAAAAAAAARD" like he's just hit the best triple word score for his scrabble game

[teacupsandcyanide]

it warms the cockles of my heart to see you say this

as a Jack I say we should be letting our husbands purchase and own more cool leather jackets

[teacupsandcyanide]

simm!master is a raccoon. sits in the rubbish tip and eats with his little hands. skittering about and cackling to himself. ten is the pest control man they send in to deal with him because ten thinks he has a "mysterious bond" with the feral raccoon. one time the raccoon did attack ten's boss that he hates but this does not change the fact that ten had to get the rabies virus because of this one raccoon.

missy is a cat. one of those super inbred but really intelligent breeds. super long hair that gets on fucking everything and she always bites the groomer and leaves their hands in shreds. except for twelve. twelve says it's because she's an inside cat and only allows her to have supervised trips outside. unfortunately missy led twelve's cat sitter bill straight to the feral racoon that lives in the skip outside twelve's flat and the raccoon gave bill rabies.

spymaster is a chihuahua. really really really overstimulated 24/7. constantly pissing himself with excitement whenever he sees thirteen. tries to bite every one of thirteen's visitors. thirteen is trying to get rid of him but has this thing about not abandoning pets and no one else will take him so she's stuck with him. he's actually a qualified medical alert dog, so he lets thirteen know she has a mysterious genetic disorder that's giving her memory issues. but he never alerts for anyone else. and he bit her while alerting her, so.

[teacupsandcyanide]

did Missy give twelve’s Friend Clara’s boyfriend toxoplasmosis

simm!master is a raccoon. sits in the rubbish tip and eats with his little hands. skittering about and cackling to himself. ten is the pest control man they send in to deal with him because ten thinks he has a "mysterious bond" with the feral raccoon. one time the raccoon did attack ten's boss that he hates but this does not change the fact that ten had to get the rabies virus because of this one raccoon.

missy is a cat. one of those super inbred but really intelligent breeds. super long hair that gets on fucking everything and she always bites the groomer and leaves their hands in shreds. except for twelve. twelve says it's because she's an inside cat and only allows her to have supervised trips outside. unfortunately missy led twelve's cat sitter bill straight to the feral racoon that lives in the skip outside twelve's flat and the raccoon gave bill rabies.

spymaster is a chihuahua. really really really overstimulated 24/7. constantly pissing himself with excitement whenever he sees thirteen. tries to bite every one of thirteen's visitors. thirteen is trying to get rid of him but has this thing about not abandoning pets and no one else will take him so she's stuck with him. he's actually a qualified medical alert dog, so he lets thirteen know she has a mysterious genetic disorder that's giving her memory issues. but he never alerts for anyone else. and he bit her while alerting her, so.

[teacupsandcyanide]

jack harkness: how's the newly regenerated COCK doctor 😜

graham: small leave me alone

[teacupsandcyanide]

If you’re pining you need to stop and pick a different tree. You know, spruce it up a little

[teacupsandcyanide]

god i wish that fucking kid didnt have such bad aim

[teacupsandcyanide]

on the bright side maybe if he gives a lot of money to elon musk elon will go to space in one of his terrible rockets and well i'm sure you can imagine

[teacupsandcyanide]

no! "sapphic yearning" will kill the patient

she needs hardcore lezzing out in order to live

[teacupsandcyanide]

a little bit of castiel in my life

ladies and gentlemen. this is blorbo number five.